


Awareness

by whatstheproblembaby



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Wrestling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-25
Updated: 2018-01-25
Packaged: 2019-03-09 10:03:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13479129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatstheproblembaby/pseuds/whatstheproblembaby
Summary: Archie's wrestling lessons with Kevin lead to a revelation.





	Awareness

**Author's Note:**

> This is because Stasia is a filthy enabler.

A warm hand slipping into his made Archie stop in the middle of the school hallway.

“Archiekins, I need to talk to you,” said Veronica, looking uncharacteristically nervous. “Come here.”

She pulled him into the empty student lounge.

“What’s up?” Archie asked, adjusting his gym bag. “I’m supposed to meet Kevin-”

“I know,” Veronica said. “This will only take a sec, and you really need to hear it before you go practice with Kevin anyway.”

Archie just tilted his head, prompting her to go on.

“My dad...my dad said we need to break up until you make the wrestling team,” Veronica said, staring down at the floor. “I knew he wasn’t quite sold on you yet, but I didn’t realize how much. He said he wants you to _prove you’re worthy_ of me, which is ridiculous, but….”

“Wait, what?” Archie said. “Veronica, that’s crazy!”

“I know, and you know I wouldn’t just agree to something this...medieval,” Veronica said. She paused, looking up into Archie’s eyes. “But then Daddy said he’d take back the angel donation for your father’s medical bills if I didn’t cooperate. I don’t know if that’s normally possible-”

“But when your father is the richest man in Riverdale, things can happen,” Archie finished. “I understand. I don’t like it, but I understand.”

“I’m sorry, Archiekins.”

“It’s not your fault,” Archie said, pulling Veronica into a hug. “But I guess I need to tell Kevin not to go easy on me now.”

“Like he would have in the first place,” Veronica teased.

They left the lounge and walked together until they reached the hall where Archie would turn toward the gym while Veronica walked to the parking lot.

“Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

Archie walked the rest of the way in silence, processing everything Veronica had just told him as he changed in the locker room. He had just entered the gym and tossed his bag on the bleachers when Kevin arrived.

“Hey, Arch! Something wrong?”

“What? No, why?” Archie lied, hoping to deflect Kevin’s attention.

“Because you look like Troy Bolton before he realized people could do both sports and theater,” Kevin said, setting his bag next to Archie’s. “Do you need a minute to dance around the gym while singing an angsty ballad, or…?”

“No, I’ll be okay,” Archie said, huffing out a reluctant laugh. “I just...Veronica’s dad told her she had to break up with me until I make the wrestling team, so that’s not weighing down on me or anything.”

“What? That’s a little extreme, even for the Lodges,” Kevin said, aghast.

“You’re telling me. Think you can coach me well enough to meet my girlfriend’s dad’s impossibly high standards?”

“Archie, I beat Greendale’s best wrestler last year, and he trains with an Olympic coach,” Kevin said, cocking an eyebrow. “I can help you win Daddy Lodge’s approval.”

“Oh, really?” Archie said, smirking. “Show me what you got.”

“Just remember, you asked for this.” Kevin walked to the center of the mat, motioning for Archie to follow. He dropped to all fours, saying, “Get on top of me.”

Archie had to bite his lip viciously to keep from making an inappropriate remark. He knelt over Kevin, already tensing up as he remembered getting flipped into the mat the other day.

“Hey, relax,” Kevin said. “I’ll go easier on you this time.”

“No, don’t,” Archie said. ‘I’ll never learn if you hold back.”

“Okay,” Kevin said skeptically. “Then get ready.”

“Wh- _oof._ ”

Archie’s breath rushed out of him all at once as Kevin pinned him easily to the mat. His eyes locked with Kevin’s light green ones as he reoriented himself, and the playful yet kind look there made Archie lose what little air he’d regained.

“Archie?”

“Took me by surprise, that’s all,” Archie said, a bit unsteadily. “Again.”

They reset themselves to their original position, which Archie had to fight hard not to think of as an embrace. Once again, he was flipped to the ground.

“Careful. If you keep this up, I’m gonna start thinking you just like being on the bottom,” Kevin said wickedly.

“Maybe I do,” Archie said unthinkingly.

Kevin’s jaw dropped as he turned an interesting shade of red.

“Uh. I mean...what’s next?” Archie said, feeling his own face flame.

“Um, bear hugs,” Kevin said, shaking his head once before pushing himself to his feet. He offered Archie a hand up, which Archie took gratefully.

“Is that really the name?”

“Well, some people call it a bodylock, but yeah, bear hug is used too,” Kevin said. “Basically, it’s when one wrestler pins the other’s arms down before picking them up and slamming them both to the ground. Done right, it’s a pretty quick way to take someone down.”

“If you can even get behind them in the first place,” Archie noted.

“You’re pretty fast from all the running you did from football and basketball,” Kevin said. “You might just be able to pull it off. Now come on, get behind me.”

“Wait, I’m doing the bear hugging?”

“I can slam you to the ground again if you’d really like, but I thought you might want a turn,” Kevin teased. “You won’t hurt me, I promise.”

Archie took his place behind Kevin, trying not to note how neatly their bodies fit together as they pressed close.

“Alright, now pin my arms.”

“Okay,” Archie said. He took a deep breath before wrapping his arms around Kevin’s chest as clinically as he could.

“Archie. A toddler could break out of this hold,” Kevin said, turning his head enough that Archie could see him raise an eyebrow judgmentally.

Archie tightened his grip, thinking, _This is just a wrestling move between friends. It means nothing, it means nothing, it means-_

“Lift and drop!”

“Ahhh!” Archie yelled, following through on autopilot. When his head cleared, he had his torso free and one leg wrapped around Kevin’s back, pinning Kevin to the ground without impeding his own mobility.

“And in a real match, you’d use your upper body to pin the rest of me and win,” Kevin said, smiling. “Nice work, Arch!”

“You mean, like this?” Archie said, pivoting to hold both of Kevin’s arms down while moving his leg lower down Kevin’s body. Their eyes met again across the scant distance between them.

_So green, I didn’t know people could have eyes like-_

“Yeah, exactly,” Kevin said thickly. His glance darted to Archie’s lips, and for a moment Archie was tempted to lower his head, but a door slamming in the locker room startled them both apart.

“Again?” Archie asked, stepping back and helping Kevin up the way Kevin had helped him earlier.

“Again.”

_________________________

Three days later, Archie was a wreck. He’d spent every afternoon that week practicing with Kevin, and he couldn’t keep himself from being more and more attuned to Kevin’s body as they grappled and sparred.

“God, what am I gonna do this afternoon at the tryouts?” Archie mumbled, tipping his head against the shelf in his locker.

“Can we talk, Ron Weasley?” Cheryl asked, clamping her hand around his arm. When he didn’t resist, she dragged him off to the music room. “Great, I’ll cut right to it: what is up with you and our resident hot nerd Kevin Keller?”

“I don’t know what you mea-”

“Oh, please,” Cheryl said, holding up a hand to stop him. “I saw you and him at Pop’s the other day. Your eyes had practically turned into cartoon hearts, and when he walked up to the counter to pay, I know you checked out his ass. Explain.”

“He’s been helping me with my wrestling all week, so we’ve ended up at Pop’s a lot afterwards to refuel,” Archie said, shoving his hands in his pockets. “And one night we decided to go back to his house and watch a movie. Typical bro stuff. Except….”

“Except?” Cheryl asked, arching an eyebrow.

“Except when the movie ended, I wanted to kiss him good night, which isn’t a thing that happens when Jughead and I hang out,” Archie admitted. “And I’m more aware of him physically than ever before, which probably isn’t super weird when you consider that we’ve been wrestling, but it also makes me want to touch him when we’re not wrestling. Like, I almost put my arm over his shoulders in the hall yesterday before I remembered that isn’t a platonic thing for most guys.”

“Oh my God. You’re in love with him.”

“What? No! It’s way too early for that,” Archie said. “But...I might like him as more than a friend. Ugh!”

“If you’re about to make some comment full of internalized homophobia, I’m going to have to-”

“No, Cheryl, that’s not the problem,” Archie interrupted. “Like, yeah, I’m surprised to have these feelings, but I don’t hate that I have them. I just don’t know what to do about the tryouts this afternoon. I’m supposed to wrestle Kevin, but I don’t know if I can keep touching him when I have a - a _crush_ , and he doesn’t. It feels wrong.”

“Who says he doesn’t?” Cheryl asked. “Again, I saw you at Pop’s. You may have been staring at him like a lovesick fool - but he was staring right back.”

“Wh - no. You’re messing with me.”

“Archie. I know I don’t do a lot of things out of the goodness of my heart, but I wouldn’t lie about this. Even if that scumbug hadn’t tried to rape me, I wouldn’t encourage any unwanted advances on other people. I have some decency.”

“You have plenty of decency, Cheryl,” Archie said, head spinning. He hadn’t considered that maybe Kevin could - that he did - “You swear he was looking the same way at me?”

“On JJ’s grave.”

“I’ve gotta go.”

Archie barely heard Cheryl call “Toodles!” as he hustled away. He changed as quickly as he could in the locker room before bursting into the gym, where the rest of the hopefuls were already assembled.

“Finally,” the coach called. “Last one in goes first, Andrews, so take the mat.”

“Yes, sir.” Archie walked to the center of the room, unable to keep from smiling when Kevin met up with him.

“You ready?” Kevin asked, returning Archie’s grin.

“Absolutely.”

Archie waited for Kevin to get down, then took his accustomed place on top of him. When the whistle blew, he got pinned yet again.

“Archie, we practiced this,” Kevin whispered. “You know how to evade me.”

“Yes, but being pinned down gives me better leverage to do this,” Archie said as he leaned up and planted a solid kiss on Kevin’s mouth.

Kevin’s mouth went slack beneath Archie’s for a heart-stopping moment, but he quickly recovered and began kissing back, making Archie’s brain completely short-circuit.

When they came up for air, Archie took his chance, flipping and pinning Kevin to the mat.

“Sneaky,” Kevin gasped, smiling. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”

“Oh, there’s a lot you don’t know about me, Kev.”

“Think I’ll get the chance to find out more? Say, at Pop’s later?”

“I’d say the odds are pretty good.”


End file.
